“Thad, I’m not saying a single word,” expostulated the stout scout; “fact is, if you come right down to brass tacks, I’m satisfied to stay here, rather than scratch my way along, and p’raps break my nose tumbling. And I’m sure Smithy is built the same way. I hope you’ll let me hold the gun you leave with us, which ought to be my own repeating Marlin, because it’s already proved its worth. And, Thad, you remember I shot it with some success the time we were out there in the Rockies after big game.”
“That’s only a fair bargain, Bumpus,” he was told by the scout master; “and you can consider it a bargain. We’ll look to hear a good report from you when we come back to camp again.”
“And with our prisoners in charge, too,” added the confident Giraffe.
Bumpus saw them depart with a gloomy look, as though he felt that all chances of winning new laurels had been snatched away when he was ordered to keep camp.
CHAPTER XXII.
DRAWING THE NET.
Whenever Thad Brewster started to do anything he went about it in a thorough manner. He was no believer in halfway measures, which accounted for much of the success that had crowned his efforts in the past, as those who have read former books in this series must know.
He arranged the beating party in such a way that Giraffe and Davy went together; Allan had Step Hen for a companion; while the Southern lad accompanied Thad himself.
Having given the camp keepers a few last instructions, with regard to remaining on the alert, and listening for any signals such as members of the Silver Fox Patrol were in the habit of exchanging while in the woods and separated, Thad led the way toward the upper end of the island.
They found no trouble in arriving there. The river had indeed fallen very much, and the flat rock upon which the nose of the shanty-boat had been driven by the fierce current was now away out of the water. Had the craft remained where it struck it would be high and dry ashore.
The boys would not have been human had they not first of all looked yearningly toward the shore, between which and themselves rolled a wide stretch of water. Still, as the sun shone brightly, and the air was getting comfortably warm, the outlook did not seem anything like that which they had faced on the preceding morning. And, besides, they had just eaten a breakfast that at least satisfied their gnawing hunger, and that counted for considerable.